wooho well iv decided to get a betta... seeing as i now have space!
the tank is a 3 gal plastic one and its on my window sill so i know i will need a heater as the temp is all over the place up there!

well its a heavily planted tank and it will only be one male betta so i was thinking.. do i really need a filter seeing as the plants will suck up most of the ammonia and i will do frequent water changes? or should i still use a small one?

i will post a pic of it soon if that could be of any help.. also would i be able to put a few W/C in there maybe or will there be to little space and the betta will kill em!?

thanks in advance to any advice!

I know bettas don't like water currents, so if you watch the params and you do lots of little water changes, you should be fine. I don't heat my betta tanks, and I don't think heating one under 5 gallons is safe. Too little water.

When are you going to get him? I love bettas. And once you get one, you just cant stop!

You dont have to filter it. just change like 50% or so a week and you should be fine IMO. And i have heard heating tanks under 5 gallons is dangerouse, but i heat my 3 gallon for my dwarf puffer, with a Marineland Neptune 25 watt, and its been working wonderfully since dec. 04. its supposed to be accurate to within 1 degree, so i figured I'd try it

If you have it on the windowsill then you will have an algae problem very quickly. Even though its warm here just now it will be a lot colder in the winter and you will need to keep him in a heated room.
Plants dont take up ammonia you will have to keep testing the water for ammonia and change the whole tank once a week i would think.

I also put heaters in small tanks with no problem. And I change out two thirds of the water every three days... no filtration.

Bettas love plants so what I've done is planted my plants in cheap shot glasses and keep the bottom of the tank bare, so I can just turn the heater off, remove the plants, catch the betta and a litre of clean water, rinse the whole tank out and fill it with aged, treated, conditioned and heated water (I have a spare heater I use in the waterchange bucket) add back the betta and his litre of water, and all his plants.

hmm ok.. well i do have a spare heat mat i bought with that tank a few years ago (it was originaly for my giant african land snail!) would that be less dangerous than a heater?

the algae wont be too bad as my window is north facing and its always pretty dark in my room.. so if i have it in my room i wont be able to see the little guy without a light!!

im gonna have to get him in a couple of weeks as im going away on thursday and i dont want him to be in the care of my dad for his quarantine period!

you also want to watch the sunlight from the window doesnt over-heat your tank.

Yeah, that's why my bookshelf turned into a fish-shelf!

Hmm, bettas shouldn't be out in the sun for long periods of time, it's not good for them.

oh no dont worry about the sun overheating it or anything.. i dont get any direct sunlight in my room..(except for like half hour at about 7am) the window sill is always very cold!